Thursday, April 24, 2008

Occupational hazards

No doubt your parents, like mine, had dreams about your future. I know my mother had high hopes that I would become a doctor or a lawyer. I have no idea why.

I never became either, once I noticed that both careers required a great deal of schooling, an activity that held no appeal to me. (I wound up marrying a teacher. Go figure.)

About the only thing I have in common with doctors is my handwriting, which is illegible. Sometimes even I can't read it, which has led to some interesting purchases at the grocery store. ("Why did you buy tomato aspic?" "Isn't that what it says?" "I think that's tomato 'juice.'")

I had someone once tell me I had psycho killer handwriting, which is probably accurate. If the typewriter hadn't been invented, I'm sure I would have invented it. I learned to type at a very young age.

Anyway, I remember as a junior in high school — that's as far as I got, because I skipped my senior year — I had a friend, John, who knew what he wanted to do with his life: he wanted to become a dentist. No one in his family was a dentist, and I have no idea why that appealed to him. I was amazed, because most days I didn't even know what I wanted to do that weekend, let alone with the rest of my life. John did become a dentist, and he's a dentist today.

On the other hand, my oldest stepbrother is 62, and still doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. My other stepbrother has had at least a dozen careers that I'm aware of, including auto mechanic, commercial real estate developer and video game designer.

A couple of weeks ago when I spoke to a bunch of high schoolers at their Career Day, I assured them that decisions they made in college (and just after) about their careers weren't irrevocable, so don't sweat it if you try a couple of different jobs before you find one you like.

But work on your handwriting, just in case.

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